5 Ways an Intranet Can Help in the Construction Industry
Blair Williamson
As construction projects get larger, so does the level of complexity. More people to manage, more problems to solve, and more material and engineering issues to deal with.
Communication is critical. It is key to getting a handle on all of the fast-moving and shifting variables. Whether it's an onsite crew left empty-handed by an errant supplier or an engineer who has to appear on-site to deal with a stop-work issue – it's all about getting the right information to the right people – quickly.
That's why a powerful intranet is a tool of choice for any enterprise that relies on a mobile, dispersed, and digitally connected workforce. It is no longer simply a communication tool for desk workers doing white-collar jobs but also a critical resource for onsite, frontline teams.
As a recent report from Deloitte points out, engineering and construction industry leaders need to be ready to harness the full potential of industry dynamics to benefit clients and their workforce. This involves moving from traditional to future processes that include smarter and more effective management tools.
LumApps Intranet offers a wide range of powerful capabilities. It lets teams stay connected using their preferred desktop, laptop, or handheld mobile device. It enables construction and engineering professionals, at all levels, working at the office or the worksite, to communicate and connect.
Beyond the technology solutions associated with construction design, a powerful enterprise intranet can serve the construction and engineering sector in a range of different applications.
Here are five ways a powerful intranet solution like LumApps can help companies in the construction industry.
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1. Connect and communicate with all frontline employees:
A well-connected business doesn’t only improve on top-down communication. It also helps ensure that your teams on the ground can reach up to supervisors and senior staff when they need to. With a powerful and versatile intranet, employees can connect in the community spaces, and they can also reach out to supervisors and colleagues at any time.
This type of two-way communication helps generate a more committed and engaged workforce and establish a framework for improved project management and oversight. It makes collaboration between decentralized teams easier, linking access to critical documents like structural plans and site drawings, and streamlining messaging across a distributed workforce.
Acorus, a construction services company in France that specializes in renovating real estate assets, harnessed the power of LumApps AI-supported intranet to communicate and share resources across its 150 mini-teams and 800 mobile field technicians.
LumApps helped Acorus facilitate the information exchange across its distributed frontline workforce, sharing processes, problems, and know-how.
The technology helped the company foster common values and brand alignment across teams. As a result, Acorus saw the following benefits:
- With cross-device capability, LumApps allowed employees to share information and update colleagues no matter where they work, via their mobile devices.
- LumApps mobile directory made it easy to identify different employees on a site and reach out when necessary.
LumApps intranet even allows you to connect frontline and field workers who do not have company email addresses.
2. Project and material oversight:
One of the obvious positive effects of better communication and project management is the ability to improve efficiencies. In the construction sector, striking the delicate balance between quality, costs, and time can make or break a successful project.
The inability to effectively triangulate these three variables is the most common cause of project failure. Improved time management has a significant effect on worker and material costs, overheads, and late completion penalties.
Better communication and HR management not only ensures improved reliability across work sites and projects, it also helps improve access and coordination between key suppliers and partners. This translates to lower costs and expenses, ensuring better business outcomes.
LumApps intranet offers integrations for most major business apps to allow you to:
Review the status of material inventories.
Manage and replenish orders as required.
Get a consolidated view of ongoing projects and team locations.
3. Simplified time tracking & management for all construction sites:
With the construction industry largely dependent on a distributed, deskless workforce, a versatile mobile intranet can be a critical resource for employee communication and timekeeping. It lets individual, frontline crew members or field workers clock in and out through their personal device without using addtional applications or software.
LumApps also lets site supervisors, managers and HQ know who is on which site and when. Team and individual employees working on a project can keep track of hours on the job without having to call into a supervisor. It also makes it easier for HQ and managers to know when employees are absent and better manage their frontline and onsite human resources.
In addition to serving as an important touchpoint for regular communication and connectivity, LumApps acts as a mobile digital HQ. It facilitates contact for departments like HR, making it much easier to field requests from onsite colleagues and enabling easy download of payslips and tax forms, as well as a resource for managing performance reviews and employee surveys.
Facilitate shift changes and review on-site job handovers with more precision.
Reach out to individual employees to find out project-related specifics.
Keep team members informed with reminders and updates.
Request leave or vacation days.
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4. Ensuring safety and crisis response
With one of the highest rates of workplace injuries and deaths, it is no surprise that construction can be a dangerous business. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1 in 5 workplace fatalities occurs on construction sites. Additionally, the days away from work caused by non-fatal injuries in the sector are significantly higher than in other industries.
Given the nature of the work, keeping your people safe is a critical part of the job.
EllisDon, a world-leading construction and building services company, implemented LumApps across its 3000-strong workforce and 12 offices. They used LumApps powerful intranet solution as part of a crisis response system that enabled team members to share frequent updates in real-time to avoid work disruptions.
LumApps also provided teams with information on safety procedures. It helped guide employees on best practices and share safety-related information, ensuring better onsite security as well as fostering stronger connections between team members.
With crews often working in high-risk environments, having critical information on their personal device about site-related risks is a game changer. For some LumApps clients, like Idex Group, the ability to better inform frontline staff on safety procedures, protocols, and new standards has resulted in an impressive 23% decrease in the number of safety related incidents.
For Idex Group teams, LumApps enabled quick access to dedicated security pages so that frontline workers can review existing site-related resources. It lets them ask questions directly to colleagues and reach out immediately to co-workers and supervisory staff in case of emergencies.
If improved onboarding and safety training are important to your company, you can use the employee journey feature to streamline onboarding or the in-site learning functionality.
To support security and safety education, our powerful and integrated LumApps Learning tools bring microlearning applications to your workforce no matter where they work. It is a powerful resource that can help provide work security-related information and training to new as well as existing employees.
Innovative e-learning and micro-learning solutions help disseminate safety-related information in a dynamic and engaging way
Preparing and informing new and existing employees before entering high-risk environments can be supported through educational technology that can also be used to help evaluate retention and understanding.
5. Data tracking and analytics:
A powerful intranet, especially one supported by tools and insights generated by artificial intelligence, is a critical resource for harvesting rich data. Applying advanced analytics and data-rich insights to safety, project, and HR management processes improves the quality of decision-making.
Helping streamline resource and workforce allocation and utilization, LumApps AI-supported Intranet improves the remote management of critical assets. It also provides your frontline workforce with the information they need to make better and more informed decisions.
At the end of the day, evidence-based decision-making enhances safety and well-being for all employees, improving the quality of communication and ultimately generating better outcomes - empowering leadership and individual team members to be safe and well connected.
Assess quality and take up of communication and priority health and safety material in real time.
Use data insights to deliver more targeted and meaningful communication and safety messaging.
Taking a more 'connected' approach to construction can help keep projects on time and on budget, protect assets, and improve overall quality by enabling people to work smarter, communicate more easily, and track projects more effectively.
In the US, the construction industry employs over 8 million people and generates approximately $2.1 trillion dollars in value each year. A powerful intranet solution like LumApps helps create a more standardized approach across projects. We make it easier for you to manage your workforce and improve asset allocation across multiple projects.
By improving the distribution of critical information across devices and platforms, we help ensure your workforce is up-to-date and informed. Our AI-powered tools and resources help enterprises in the construction and engineering sector better manage a distributed workforce and keep their teams safe and connected.
